


Stars in the Springs

by xbleeple



Series: Stars in the Springs [1]
Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: F/M, fic prompts, oneshots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-25
Updated: 2018-09-09
Packaged: 2019-07-02 09:24:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15793677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xbleeple/pseuds/xbleeple
Summary: Just a collection of fun little fic prompts!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Taking place post Atlantis/Universe. Sam is back at the SGC and Jack is still in Washington.
> 
> Prompt: "I don’t want to think about what I’d be like without you."

She could have flown faster if they would have just given her the keys to the X302. An F16 would have taken an hour, she probably could have gotten the 302 down to thirty minutes. Both options better than a three and a half hour flight and a forty five minute drive to Walter Reed. The drive was a given in either event, though in her state she probably would have landed the plane on the damn hospital lawn.

She was lucky that the President liked and valued Jack and had given the order that the ‘brass transport’ from Petersen was to take off immediately with her as the only passenger. Still, she was surprised when she was met on the tarmac with a small motorcade. The motorcade cut the 45 minute evening traffic trip to twenty minutes, pulling up directly to the emergency room doors.

She doesn’t utter a thank you as she springs out of the car and runs inside. She doesn’t pause when a petite doctor that bore a striking resemblance to Janet Fraiser meets her in the lobby and guides her upstairs to the cardiac wing, explaining what her husband’s condition was. She rattles off numbers and readings as they walk. At this point it had been five hours since she’d been called, and almost six since he’d collapsed in the Oval Office. They stop in the CICU in front of an empty room and Sam finally speaks for the first time since she’d dropped the phone back into the cradle.

"Where is he?“ She asks as she looks at the empty room. The bed hadn’t been touched, no one had been in.

“He’s just getting out of bypass,” The doctor admits.

“Bypass?” Sam breathes.

“We took him in about forty five minutes after he was admitted. Last I checked the surgery was going well and they were closing up.”

“What…what does that mean?“

"He’s got a few days in the CICU, about a week in the hospital after that. Cardiac rehab. He’ll need to slow down, change his diet. Barring any infection post-op he should be just fine.”

“Slow down? He’s the Air Force Chief of Staff…he’s a four star general for god sakes,” Sam replies, an irate tone slipping out without consent.

“And he had a massive heart attack that required a double bypass,” The doctor replies in the same quiet tone she had already been using, “General or not, he needs to slow down.”

"Right, I’m - I’m sorry,” Sam shakes her head.

“You can wait here. They’ll bring him in soon.“

"Thank you,” She whispers before stepping into the room. Her hands twist in front of her as she surveys the pristine room before folding her form into the bench seat in the window. She was still dressed in her BDUs and she pulls her jacket tighter around herself as she looks out at the winter landscape beyond the glass. Once he’s wheeled in she moves from the window to the chair next to his bed wrapping her fingers around the hand that was free of IVs as she listens to the surgeon give her a play by play and the cardiologist give her an overarching plan of the next week.

He’s loopy when he wakes up and moves to grouchy when he stops being loopy. They work through this emotional plane until he’s moved to the step down unit and then he’s just grouchy all the time. On the fifth day she snaps as they get into another tiff about what after the hospital was going to look like.

"Jesus Christ, Jack! You had a massive fucking heart attack five days ago and had your goddamn chest cracked open. I am _not_ sending you back to the Pentagon because all they’re going to do is send you back to me in a coffin after you die on American soil. You’ve spent your entire life in the service and fought all over the fucking world _and_ the universe,“ She rails, "I am _not_ going to let you die…behind a desk. I agreed to a cabin in the fucking boonies in Minnesota. _That’s_ what I agreed to, that’s what I married, and _you_ need to hold up your end of the agreement!”

“Sam…” Jack tries to interrupt.

“I…I let the Air Force dictate the existence of my relationship with you for almost a decade, I have continued to let them dictate the parameters since we’ve been together. I’m here, you’re there. We have been married for six years, and we have maybe spent a total of…half that time directly in each other’s company!” She flails, “I gave up on _children_ because of them. Three years of trying foiled by delayed flights, national emergencies, galactic emergencies. In three years of trying, we only had sex maybe a dozen times when we actually needed to. A _dozen_ times in _three_ years.”

“I know. I…” He speaks again, sighing as she bowls over and continues on her rant. She apparently needed to get it out.

“You have taken up almost a third of my life and in that entire time I have _never_ gotten to just exist with you. I don’t _want_ to think about what I’d be like without you,” Her voice cracks, “I’ve spent fifteen years not thinking about it. And it’s going to happen. Sixty forty I’m going to have to live my life without you at some point. And I don’t want to be bitter about all of the time we _didn’t_ spend together, but be happy about the time that we did. Just give me a few years, please.”

“Okay,” Jack replies. Sam inhales as if she was going to keep going but manages to completely deflate as she lets it out, collapsing into the chair in the corner. She reaches up and is surprised to feel tears slipping out of the corners of her eyes but swipes them away with a firm hand.

“I married you for a reason and I just want to be able to enjoy…"

"I said okay,” Jack raises his voice slightly, “Bring me whatever I need to sign once I’m off of the pain killers they tell me impairs my judgment."

"Okay,” She whispers.

“There’s going to be a fight you know?”

“I know,” She whispers again before looking up at him, “I don’t care if we have to flee the country…I just want a few years.”

“I told you you shouldn’t have married an old man…”

“I know.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: We finish it the same way we started - together.
> 
> A fluffy glimpse into future Sam and Jack on the day of Jack's retirement.

Jack whistles as he strolls through the halls of the SGC. There were a lot of new faces that lined the halls, a lot of young ones too. Sam had texted him to come by the SGC before going home once his flight landed. It was nice to finally be able to just purchase a one way ticket from DC to Colorado without having to plan for his return. To see how many hours he could possibly squeeze out of his visit before he absolutely had to go back. There wasn’t going to be one. As of 5pm that evening he was going to be officially retired from the US Air Force. His stuff had already been beamed to the house and was waiting for him to be unpacked.

He swings his way up the stairs through the control room, offering a jaunty wave at those that were hard at work before continuing up and towards his wife’s office. He arches his eyebrow at the stacks of boxes on the briefing room table but continues walking, almost running into Sam as she steps through the doorway with another bankers box in her arms.

“Hey! You landed.”

“I did, came straight over as ordered.”

“I still think you’re the ranking member in this relationship,” She grins cheekily, “At least for…”

“An hour and a half,” He smiles, “What’s all this?”

“My stuff to take home.”

“Ah…big project?” He questions. There had to be five boxes on the table counting the one that she’d just added. She liked to work from home sometimes, but this was pushing the few files she’d usually bring a little far.

“You could say that,” She winks before leaning up to give him a quick peck on the lips and breezing back into the office, “Can you find a dolly so we can get these up to the truck?”

“Yeah…sure,” Jack says skeptically before wandering off to do as she asked. He returns a few minutes later carrying a dolly and some packing straps, “You just want me to load this stuff up?”

“Yeah,” Sam calls out from inside the office, “Just take ‘em up to the truck and put them in the bed. I’ll meet you out there, I’m almost done. Can you call Jesse when you get top side and let her know we’ll be home in about 45 minutes? And tell her not to worry about food.”

“Yes, ma'am,” Jack grins before starting to stack the boxes up. Once he gets them loaded he straps them down to prevent them from tumbling over any bumps they may encounter before making his way to the surface. He makes the trek to the employee parking lot and loads everything into the bed before making his way back to drop off the moving items and sign out of the base officially. As he walks back to the truck to wait for Sam he makes the phone call she had requested before hopping up onto the tailgate and kicking his feet as he waits. He pulls his sunglasses out of his pocket and slides them on as he squints in the sun before looking back down at his phone and opening one of the few games he had on the thing. Sam had put them on for him for when he was bored while they were out and about.

It’s about fifteen minutes later when he hears the gravel crunching under booted feet. He smiles when he sees her approaching dressed in her blue BDUs with stars stitched onto the collar with another box in her arms, this one open at the top. He climbs down and slides his phone into his back pocket, holding out his arms for the box.

“Last one?”

“Yeah,” She affirms, “Put that one in the back seat will you?”

“Sure, you driving?”

“Yes, sir,” She laughs as she unlocks the cab and climbs up into the driver seat. It was a sight that Jack always loved to watch from the first time she’d climbed up into his cab on their first date to every time he came home and found that she was driving the massive F250 around instead of her little sports car. He moves around to the passenger side and shifts the weight to one arm before opening the back door and setting the box on the seat. He frowns when he sees the glimpse of medals in shadow boxes and degrees in frames.

“Sam?”

“Hmm?” She responds as she buckles her seatbelt into place, turning around to face him.

“This is the stuff from your office.”

“Yeah.”

“Why are you taking home the stuff from your office?”

“Because it’s mine…and not the person who’s going to come in to the office tomorrow.”

“ _You’re_ going into the office tomorrow…it’s Wednesday.”

“No I’m not, Jack,” She says as she shifts her weight a little more to give him more of her presence and attention.

“What’re you…”

“I’m not coming back to the mountain in an official Air Force capacity anymore.”

“You…”

“Once you got your date I gave my papers to Landry,” She tells him, “We are both availing ourselves in contractor positions, so he accepted them.”

“Why would you do that?”

“We finish it the same way we started—together,” She replies in a simple tone, “Now will you get in? I don’t want to get home late after we were actually nice and called Jesse.”

“Sam.”

“Just get in.”

“Fine,” He closes the back door before open the passenger one and climbing up into his seat. She backs out as he buckles his belt before pointing them towards home, “Why didn’t you say anything? Why didn’t they tell me anything?”

“You didn’t need to know in a professional capacity, and what makes a better retirement gift than another retirement,” She smiles as she looks over at him, rolling her eyes as she finds him pouting slightly, “Jack…We had talked about this.”

“We talked about waiting a couple more years.”

“What’s the point? You’re here now, you’re home now. I don’t need a couple more years,” She explains, “What I need is to take you on that honeymoon we’ve been meaning to have for the last few years.”

“Bali?” Jack’s ears perk up.

“I’ll go wherever you want, I’ll even let you pick the bikini.”

“Well you’re in a giving mood today.”

“I’m retiring before the age of sixty with a full pension,” She laughs, “And my husband wants to take me to Bali. I can’t exactly feel down, can I?”

“The gate was a big part of your life.”

“And it’ll still be,” She assures him, “Don’t think we’re getting off lightly with this consulting gig.”

“They get too greedy they’ll be asking the senate for an increase in defense spending,” Jack jokes as she pulls into the driveway. She turns the truck off and hops down from the driver seat before walking around the front to his side as he climbs down and goes to open the back door.

“Don’t worry about those right now, we can get them in a little bit,” She says as she grabs his hand and pulls him towards the front door. He wraps his arms around her waist and brushes her hair aside to kiss her neck as she digs her keys out of her bag and unlocks the front door. She laughs as they stumble through slightly before prying herself from his hold, “We’re home!”

“We’re in the living room,” A female voice calls out. Jack follows Sam into the living room and laughs as two curly haired toddlers waddle towards them with wide grins on their faces.

“Mama!”

“Dada!”

“Hi my angels!” Sam responds as she swoops JJ into her arms and peppers his face with kisses as Jack scoops up Abbey. The twins had been the surprise of their lives when they had found out that not only was she pregnant, but that there were going to be two.

The two of them coming along had likely been the beginning of the end for their time in the military. Sam’s pregnancy had been wrought with complications, culminating in an emergency c-section at 34 weeks. The number of frequent flyer miles that Jack racked up in those eight months could probably cover their trip to Bali. He was taking flights across the country at every opportunity, even if he could only spend half a day by the time he got there and needed to leave in order to be back to the Pentagon. But it had all been worth it once Abigail Claire and Jonathan Michael (she had hounded him on the name until the day they were born) had come into the world relatively unscathed from all they had put their mother through.

He felt terrible for leaving Sam to raise them while he was in DC, the two of them going back and forth still only as often as they could with him usually coming to her so she didn’t have to drag the babies to him. But she had found their nanny, Jesse, early on and he had to admit the girl knew how to roll with the punches. It helped that the twins loved her to bits.

“How were they today?”

“Great as always,” Jesse comments as she grabs her bag off of the coat rack, “They seem to be better, still a little snotty, but otherwise they’re good. They had a snack around three and their nap was a little late today.”

“Thank you.”

“No problem, I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Yes, please, at least a half day.”

“Okay, bye Mr. O’Neill.”

“Bye, Jesse,” Jack waves to her as he shifts Abbey to one well muscled arm. He grins at Sam after the door closes, “They’re eighteen months old and she still calls me Mr. O’Neill.”

“That’s because she only talks about their snot and potty habits with me right now,” Sam replies as she steps closer, JJ still clinging to her front. She tickles the boy on his sides and grins as he lets out a peel of laughter, “I think we need a JJ and Abbey sandwich!”

The corners of Jack’s eyes crinkle as she presses herself to him and traps JJ and Abbey between them, her nimble fingers tickling them both into submission. He laughs as both of the twins protest as she squishes them even further together to get a kiss from him.

“Finish the same way we started?”

“Well…plus two.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: “When you love someone, you don’t just stop. Ever. Even when people roll their eyes or call you crazy… even then. Especially then!”
> 
> Potential missing scene from Threads. Explores the idea of how Jack exactly got Sam to finally come to the cabin.

“ _When you love someone, you don’t just stop. Ever. Even when people roll their eyes or call you crazy… even then. Especially then!_ ”

To be honest, she probably should have changed the channel when she identified that the movie on the tv was a romantic comedy. Now all she had to show for that poor decision was a hole in her tv with a remote sticking out of it. She sits on the couch for another moment before pushing herself up and walking over to the damaged appliance. She tugs the plug loose from the power strip and rips all of the other cables out from the back of it before picking it up and lugging it out to the curb. It drops to the cement none too gently and sprays out a few more pieces of glass. She’d been meaning to by a flat screen anyway.

She ignores the pieces of glass littering her living room floor as she goes to her bedroom, changing out her self defined ‘moping clothes’ into a pair of thick jeans and a grey long sleeve. Downstairs she flips through the offerings before she pulls on her favorite leather jacket and zips the black leather tight to her form. She pulls out the matching boots and laces up before digging through her purse to grab her wallet and cell phone. She digs a twenty and her license out of her wallet before the items get zipped into her jacket pockets. Her fingers hesitate as she reaches out to grab the keys to the Indian before shifting over a hook and grabbing a different set.

In the garage she walks past her car and her prized classic Indian before grabbing her helmet and pulling it on. She does up the chin strap before dropping the rear wheel of her high end Ducati sport cycle off of its mount. She’d purchased the new toy a couple of months before she’d met Pete and during their relationship had been able to take it out for a ride only twice. She’d taken to locking the garage when Pete was in town after she’d found him straddling the Indian one day. He had no intention of actually taking it out for a ride but that didn’t quell the fact that she wanted to hurl him across the lawn. Needless to say, she didn’t get to ride all too often while he was around.

She wheels it out of the garage and drops her visor into place before mounting it herself and revving the engine, peeling out of her driveway with a squeal of rubber on concrete. She keeps it in check as she moves through town before opening the throttle up once she reaches the highway, heading in the opposite direction of civilization.

Jack jerks awake, noting that he’d fallen asleep on the couch while watching a hockey game. His beer and dinner plate were discarded on the coffee table. It takes him a moment to realize his cell phone was ringing and he pushes himself up to wander into the kitchen to grab it off of the counter. He doesn’t recognize the number on the display but opens it anyway, holding it to his ear.

“O’Neill.”

“Hi, sir.”

“Hey Carter…little late isn’t it?” He asks as he looks at the clock on the wall. It was just after 10 o’ clock at night.

“Ah, yeah, sir…sorry. I didn’t wake you did I?”

“No, I was just watching the Avalanche game. What’s up?” Jack asks, holding the phone to his shoulder as he pops the top off of a new Guinness.

“I…I’m in Aspen, sir.”

“I’m sure you didn’t call me at 1012 at night to tell me you were getting away for a little while during your bereavement leave.”

“No, sir,” Sam takes a deep breath, “I kind of need you to bail me out of jail…sir.”

Jack chokes on the beer in his mouth and sputters as he sprays it across the counter, coughing aggressively as he tries to recover. He holds the phone away from his mouth for a few moments until he’s wheezing and then he brings it back.

“..ir…Sir!?”

“Sorry, I…could have sworn you just asked me to come bail you out of jail.”

“That is what I asked, sir.”

“Oh…okay. Okay. Aspen you said?”

“Yes, sir, the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office to be precise.”

“And am I going to need to stop by the bank?”

“It’s five hundred dollars. I don’t have my wallet on me but I can pay you back when we get back to the Springs, sir.”

“I assume this is bike related?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Alright, it’s going to be a few hours before I get up there, but I’ll swing by the bank and get on my way.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Hang in there, Carter,” Jack mumbles before snapping his phone closed and grabbing his keys off the counter. He stuffs his feet into his boots before turning the lights off and making his way out to the garage. He loads a few things into the bed of the truck before getting in and starting his trip to Aspen.

“Your ride is here,” The officer says, jolting her out of her thoughts as she gets up from the bench she’d been sitting on. She thanks him as she slips out of the cell and follows him to the front desk where Jack was chatting amicably with the desk sergeant.

“Hey speed racer!” He greets as she comes around to the other side.

“Hi, sir.”

“Are we good to go?”

“Yeah,” The officer nods, holding a clipboard out to Sam, “Sign where the x’s are and then you’re free to go.”

“Sure,” She whispers and picks up the pen, scanning the sheet before signing in all of the indicated places. He hands her a carbon copy along with a few other papers and the small baggie of her personal affects, “Thanks.”

“Keep it under seventy.”

“Of course, officer.”

“Let’s go, Carter,” Jack nods towards the door and takes her outside, his truck the only civilian car in the parking lot. Her bike was already loaded in back and strapped down, ready for the ride home.

“When’d you get the new ride?”

“Um, last year. I haven’t had a chance to take it out all that much,” She responds as she shuffles through the paper’s she’d been handed, “Thank you again for coming, sir. Let me know what I owe you and I can go to the bank first thing in the morning.”

“I’ll take a twelve pack of Guinness and some nice steaks,” Jack tells her as he opens the passenger door.

“Sir. You drove all the way to Aspen in the middle of the night and just paid $500 to bail me out of jail. I’m not just paying you back with steaks and beer.”

“Yeah, you are. I talked them out of the eluding an officer charge, which we’re going to talk about by the way, and they shifted the speeding and careless driving to only a fine. Which was only $200 and you won’t have to go to court,” He explains, “You have reported the incident to your CO and I will make a note of it in your file in the morning. Considering it’s your…second, maybe, infraction on file in almost twenty years in the military, I’d say you’re fine.”

“Sir, I still owe you…”

“Carter, you don’t owe me anything. Financially. We’ve got three hours back to the Springs, and you’re going to spend most of it talking,” He tells her, “I’m going in long enough when we get back to make sure that the world isn’t going to end and to make sure that Reynolds can handle the place for a few days, and you’re going to take that time that I’m gone to pack.”

“Pack? Sir, I…”

“We will then make the eighteen hour drive to Minnesota. I’m sure we’ll both do some talking during that time and Teal’c and Daniel will make it up when they can. But you’re coming to the cabin.”

“Is that an order, sir?”

“If it has to be,” Jack’s look softens, “You need to get out of your head. And I think some fishing will fix that right up.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kiss prompt - being unable to open their eyes for a few moments afterward

He probably shouldn’t be kissing her like this here. It was just supposed to be a short peck. That’s what most people did. Though he would probably remind her that they weren’t most people. And he’d been waiting way too damn long to be doing this to do it in half. 

Her arms twine around his neck, holding her close to his body as he leans her back and dips her. Internally she rolls her eyes at the cat calls that follow but doesn’t break rank until the need for oxygen becomes a little bit too much. Her eyes are closed as her forehead drops to his chin while he rights the both of them, his hands smoothing down her sides.

“Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor and pleasure to present to you for the first time ever, Jonathan and Samantha O’Neill,” Daniel introduces. Sam tips her head back and opens her eyes, grinning as she finds mirthful brown staring back at her.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kiss prompt - top of head kisses

The first time he actually consciously kisses her on the head is after her father’s wake. They were in the middle of cleaning up and another round of tears had come on as she was clearing beer bottles from one of the tables on the porch. His hand caught her elbow and pulled her into his chest, slowly swaying back and forth as she sobbed. He buried his nose into her hair and pressed a soft kiss against the crown of her head.

When they got to the cabin the next week he would do it seemingly each time he passed behind her. In the kitchen in the morning he’d sidle up behind her at the coffee pot and drop one on her head in thanks for filling his cup up. Or in passing greeting if she was sitting on the porch reading. Or at night when he thought she was already asleep and he was just watching her breathe in the moonlight.

When they’re separated by extreme distances he has a habit of snagging her the first time she tries to walk away and wrapping her into another bear hug as he presses a kiss to her temple, huffing out a quiet ‘missed you’ into her ear.

When she ends up grounded because the stick turns blue he takes to putting his hand on her belly and burying his nose into her hair before giving her a quick kiss and escaping out the front door to his waiting ride. The further along she gets the more he has to fight with a messy bun on the top of her head and eventually he just starts pulling the elastic out to continue his routine. And maybe to rile her up a little bit.

The first time she sees him do it to someone else she’s just waking up from surgery, covered in a stack of warm blankets. He’s sitting next to her bed with his t-shirt draped over his shoulder, cradling a tiny bundle to his bare chest. She knows he’s talking because she can see his lips moving, but she can’t hear what he’s saying because he’s speaking so quietly. After he finishes he gently brushes his thumb over the tiny, knit blue cap before pressing the softest kiss she’d probably ever seen in her life to the top of the baby’s head.

When he notices she’s finally awake he gives her a warm smile before leaning over to her and doing the same.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> quote prompt - "are you fucking insane?!"

Daniel always wondered why they hadn’t come across any planets that were based in Indian culture. His reasoning was that Nirrti was, had been, a relatively large system lord. There had to have been worlds that had been settled and bent to her will that were based in the geographical and theological system that she had initially existed within. So when P2Y-9E3 came across the mission roster and MALP data showed exactly the thing that had been missing from their cultural puzzle the archaeologist had practically wet himself writing up the mission brief.

They walked through the Stargate on high alert as per usual before making the short trek through thick, humid forest to the temple that had been spotted on the MALP and UAV recons. Based on their earlier research beyond the temple was a clearing and then what they believed to be the edge of a village just beyond that. The three of them stay on alert as Daniel pokes around the temple, deciding if their visit was worth while.

“Keep an eye out for snakes,” Jack tells everyone as he looks around, listening to the general hustle and bustle of a populated forest. Everything that actually stood on the ground he could handle, but bugs and snakes…there wasn’t much they could do about those but keep an eye out. Sam’s arm flings out and stops him from continuing forward in his patrolling pace, “Wha…”

“Shh!” She says before pointing out in front of them. It was probably fifty feet away from them that a peacock was walking towards a peahen, squawking out before fanning its plumes out with a shake of the tail, “I’ve never seen a real one before…”

“Trying a little hard isn’t he?” Jack quips after a moment and Sam has to contain her snort. The three of them watch for a few more minutes before a low, slow growl forces the hairs on the backs of their necks to stand up. Sam looks over at Jack and Teal’c with a short turn of her head before they all slowly turn around coming face to muzzle with a very large, white Bengal tiger with a surprisingly small boy riding on its back.

“Uh…hi?” Sam squeaks as Jack tries to get Daniel’s attention. The archaeologist’s eyes go wide when he notices the tiger and the boy and he shoves his glasses up his nose as he approaches the group slowly. The boy turns his attention away from the three in front of him to the one approaching from the side and Daniel stops in his tracks before starting to talk. After a while the boy grins and nods, talking back to him in an enthusiastic tone. They watch as he gestures to himself, the tiger, and towards the village.

“This is Aadi,” Daniel translates to them, indicating the boy before indicating the tiger, “and Kali. Aadi would like it if we would accompany them back to the village. He says there are more people in the village that speak English better than he does.”

“And…Kali?” Jack asks as he regards the tiger.

“It okay!” Aadi tells him, leaning forward to pat Kali on the head and scratch her ears before holding his hand out towards them.

“He wants you to pet her.”

“Ah…that’s-that’s okay,” Jack shakes his head.

“Jack…” Daniel warns before Sam steps forward past her CO and approaches Kali and Aadi slowly. Aadi smiles and takes Sam’s hand, putting it on Kali’s forehead between her eyes. The blonde smiles and strokes the animal’s fur softly.

“Hi pretty girl…you are gorgeous,” She murmurs as she looks her over before looking into her blue eyes. Aadi reaches his hand down to Sam again and she looks up at him with confusion, only taking his hand when he insistently pushes it closer. She yelps as he easily tugs her up off of the ground to sit on Kali in front of him. Both Jack and Teal’c jump to attention, their hands on their weapons, “I’m fine, I’m fine.”

“Go,” Aadi points towards the village before guiding Kali to turn around and head in the opposite direction. The men look at each other before following next to the tiger as they make their way to the village. Daniel spends the trip trying to convince Jack that the temple alone would be reason enough to stay.

Once they reach the village they find a flourished community no longer under the ruling hand of the goa’uld. It becomes quickly evident that these people had most likely been the pride of Nirrti’s genetic experiments at one time. Almost everyone in the village contained a small genetic change that brought out such things as Aadi’s increased strength or his sister Ila’s increased speed. Based on what they had seen later in Nirrti’s career as a genetic manipulator it was easy to see that she had gotten greedy and overconfident in her abilities.

Both Daniel and Sam manage to convince Jack that a short stay on the planet would be beneficial both culturally and scientifically. Taking the lack of hostiles on the planet and the nice tropical climate he figured they were due for an easy mission and a nice little vacation. He and Teal’c make the trek back to the gate to radio the SGC while Sam and Daniel stay behind to get more acquainted with the villagers.

By the time they return dinner preparations were just getting underway and Daniel was dressed in cotton draping pants and his BDU t-shirt talking to one of the village elders. Jack’s eyes scan the immediate area before he’s drawn to a flash of blue and blonde. Sam was clothed in a length of Persian blue fabric that looped and folded around her form, leaving her in a knee length skirt and a scant, midriff baring top. She smiles when she sees him and lifts her hand in a wave before turning her attention back to Ila who was holding a tiger cub up for her to look at.

Aadi and Ila offer to take them for a walk around the immediate area before dinner and the group readily acceptts. Before they loop back home they end up near a spring on the south side of the village. Ila points out the elephants that were bathing in the spring and the waterfall coming in on the north side. She talks excitedly as they look down at the watering hole, Daniel translating as quickly as he can.

“You…you fly into the water?” Daniel questions tilting his head.

“I show!” Ila tells him before taking a running leap off of the cliff. The four of them clamor to the edge to watch her descent before Aadi follows quickly behind her. Jack finds himself yelling after Sam as she backs up a few paces before running and launching herself off in much the same fashion. He watches as she grabs onto a branch halfway down and spins her body around it before executing a tight double back flip and plunging into the blue sparkling water below. She’s laughing as she resurfaces and begins to tread water looking up at the ledge where he, Teal’c, and Daniel were still standing.

“Are you fucking insane?!” He yells down at her.

“No, but I was a gymnast for twelve years though!” She yells back. His eyes narrow and they make their way down the stone staircase to the spring below. Sam swims her way over towards the shore, making her way out of the water with a grin on her face. If Jack was going to rail on her for her cliff jumping stunt he forgot about it the second she emerged from the water with the blue fabric clinging to every curve of her body, “And it’s also just some basic physics, sir.”

“Even you don’t calculate that fast,” He mumbles as his eyes trail water rivulets. She clears her throat and his eyes snap front, meeting sparkling blue.

“You might want to step out of the way, sir.”

“Wh…”

“KALI!” Both Aadi and Ila yell from the water. The group looks up as they hear a loud roar before Kali launches off of the cliff as well, creating quite a large splash as she dives into the water. He watches the kids take off after the large white cat once she comes up for air before he looks at Sam as she watches them, slowly dripping dry.

“Maybe we should start packing our suits when we go off world, hmm, Carter?”

“Yes, sir,” She laughs and blushes as she looks down at her feet.

“Sam!” Ila calls out from the other side of the watering hole, beckoning her over towards the elephants with a wave of her hand, “Come!”

“Can you ask them about dinner? I don’t want to be late.” Sam asks Daniel. He calls out across the water after thinking about the proper words for a moment. Aadi replies as the elephant picks him up with its trunk and sets him on top of a protruding boulder.

“He says there is time still. There’s a signal when dinner is ready.”

“Sir?”

“Oh, now you ask for permission?” Jack quips before squatting down to sit on a log, “Go get ‘em, Carter.”

Sam colors slightly once more before she wades back into the water and swims over to the kids, catching the boy as he comes sliding down the rock face laughing. She was usually awkward around kids, Cassie being the one exception it seemed like. But Aadi and Ila had latched on quite fiercely to the ‘light one’ as she was being called and it’d been months since he’d seen Sam laugh and smile like she was on this trip. And if he got to look at her wrapped in clothes that brought out the blue of her eyes and were relatively scant compared to the gear they usually wore, then who was he to argue? Well, sometimes he did argue. Most of the time he argued, because most of the time she wasn’t asked politely and her opinion wasn’t taken into consideration…

Yes, they were overdue for an easy mission.


End file.
